The music sounded at 4:30 am but I was already awake, I tip toed around the house and made my way to the truck. I call the stream flow line right away to see what direction I was headed a voice spoke to me over the phone “stream flow on June 17 2006 is 2025 CFS” I checked again to make sure I heard it right and I did…..So I thought. I picked up Luke, a.k.a raw dog, and his friend and newcomer to the sport Bo. I told him the water flow situation and we decided on a spot right off. With all the gear in the truck we made a 2 hour drive north in search of big Trout and Salmon. Arriving in town we stopped at the local fly shop to pick up some materials. I cleaned them out of the rest of cone head wooly buggers knowing that if nothing else worked these would. After chatting it up with some local fly fisherman we drove a little further to the river. “Oh my God…..the river is raging” I said to Luke, he agreed so we pondered on the thought of moving to another spot but decided to hash it out. “If it is too high we’ll just try up the road” was the conversation back and forth as we walked through the woods towards the river. At the river bank we could tell fishing was going to be difficult today, in fact all the spots I would normally fish were completely gone. We had to hunt hard to find the fish. Luke was spending some time with Bo going over the fundamentals on how to fly cast while I scouted out some water down stream. I found a big eddy that created a nice slow seam so I thought I would give it a go. My indicator was moving at the right pace and I could feel my nymphs on the bottom doing their magic. A small hesitation in the yarn resulted in a hook set and the first fish was on. It was a small brook trout but a strong fighter. I kept fishing the seam and kept catch small Brookies and Salmon. I need to find the big fish I thought to myself, and began to move up river. Luke, Bo and I fished our way back up river catching small fish the whole way. It was Noon so we hoped into the truck and drove up stream towards the dam; it was here that I realized the river was at 2825 and not 2025 CFS a very difficult level to wade. I put on a sink tip line, an Olive cone head woolly bugger and shot my line out into the faster water. Strip, strip bang a Brook Trout was on this time a little bigger but not what we were after. I took a couple steps down and repeated the process. Strip, strip bang line came out of my hand and silver came out of the water. Big silver. This Salmon kept jumping and I was trying not to fall in the river as I made my way towards shallow water. I yell to Luke “Raw dog I need the net for this one” he ran down and we successfully landed the LL Salmon. We put the tape on the fish and it flopped on the 19”-20” mark. High fives all around and life was good. We finished the day with more small fish but we were all satisfied that one of us landed a beautiful Land Locked Salmon. I will be after them again this coming weekend hopefully the voice on the other end of the line tells me the right Stream Flow.
Book
- Alaska
- Guide & Fisherman
- Guiding: Choosing Your Guide And Choosing Your Customer
- Guiding: Do It Yourself With A Guide
- Guiding: Evolution Of A Guide
- Guiding: Freshwater, More Than Meets The Eye
- Guiding: Friends For Life
- Guiding: Know Where You Are
- Guiding: More Than Just A Fisherman
- Guiding: Mystery Of The Fisherman
- Guiding: Payment
- Guiding: Saltwater, A Different World
- Rough Fish
- Fly Fishing For Rough Fish: Why Do It?
- Introduced Rough Fish: The Carps & Other Invasive Species
- Methodology: Gear & Tactics For Pursuing Roughfish On A Fly
- More Roughfish: Bullheads, Whitefish, Goldeye, Burbot & Drum
- Rough Fish Environments: Where To Look For Rough Fish?
- Rough Fish Species: The Suckers
- Rough fish: A Lifetime Of Learning
- Rough Fish: Fishing For Dinosaurs (Gars & Bowfin)
- Rough Fish: What Are They?
- The Hook: Some Common Rough Fish Fly Patterns
- Spey
- Spey: Applications, Where Can You Do It?
- Spey: Atlantic Salmon, A Significant Fish
- Spey: Defined And Demystified
- Spey: Gear, The Nuts And Bolts
- Spey: Lines, They Are That Important
- Spey: Steelhead, New Traditions & A Modern Movement
- Spey: The Energy
- Spey: The Flies
- Spey: The Swing
- Spey: Two Critical Casts
- Striped Bass
- Striped Bass: Fishing Rocky Shorelines
- Striped Bass: Fishing The Beaches
- Striped Bass: Fishing The Flats
- Striped Bass: Fishing The Reefs
- Striped Bass: Fishing Tidal Rivers
- Striped Bass: Flatwing Swing
- Striped Bass: Fly Line Options & Choices
- Striped Bass: Gear, The Nuts & Bolts
- Striped Bass: Migration Patterns
- Striped Bass: What They Eat
- The Art Of Escape
- Fly Fishing: A Natural Drug
- Fly Fishing: A Validation Of Freedom
- Fly Fishing: Don’t Fight The Current
- Fly Fishing: It Is What It Is
- Fly Fishing: Socialization For Asocial Individuals
- Fly Fishing: The Allure Of The Fish
- Fly Fishing: The Art Of Escape
- Fly Fishing: The Simplicity Of It All
- Fly Fishing: Time Flies
- Fly Fishing: Times You Remember & Try To Forget
Nice work joey that is a nice fish. The wolly bugger is the key ingredient to a one way ticket to slay town
Austin
hey great story, you guys certainly are lucky to have such a fishery at your disposal and are certainly making the most of tough conditions. More rain on the way!!!
Great Job
nice story. thats some nice lookin fish you guys hooked into.